Chinese Amnesia on the 25th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedy at Tiananmen Square—when hundreds, maybe thousands of pro-democracy protesters were slaughtered by tanks and soldiers as they rolled into the site where the student-led protest was taking place.

Even today, most Chinese people are completely unaware of the events that transpired on June 4, 1989, due to rigorously controlled education and strict surveillance of the Internet by the Chinese government.

Two summers ago, I travelled to China to teach middle school children English. While I was unfamiliar with much of their culture, I was most shocked to learn that not a single one of my students had any idea what happened at Tiananmen Square.

Louisa Lim, an NPR correspondent and author of The People's Republic of Amnesia, told USA Today that just 15 out of 100 students at four top universities in Beijing could identify the events surrounding the famous tank photo when it was shown to them.

The Tiananmen Square martyr. By putting his life on the line in front of his government's tanks, he provided not only one of the most memorable images of the last 35 years but one of the most inspiring too. The free China of the future owes him a statue or two.

The Chinese government has implemented measures leading up to the anniversary to ensure that they keep this secret out of the minds of their people. Tech news site CNETreported that access to Google has been shut off for several days leading up the anniversary and that other domestic search engines in China have been censored more than usual.

The Chinese government's attempts at censorship do not end there though. The Guardian has reported that about 50 people have either been detained or disappeared as the anniversary neared. Others have been put in prison with long sentences for organizing a private memorial gathering.

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The young 1/2 Korean woman I used to work with went through a car a year for 10 years. Mostly she totaled them. Her version was always that somebody else was at fault. Maybe so, but she never used her turn signals, and came up on congested entry/exit ramps like a James Bond movie stunt driver. One car was lost because her husband put an “improved” air intake on her car and the old float valve wouldn’t fit it. When we had a flood, she ran through some high water and turned it into a short-lived steam engine. Very impressive.

The parking lot of the Asian grocery market that we shop at is the most dangerous driving area you will ever see. It’s like those bumper car rides they have at kiddy fairs, only with Mercedes and Lexus SUVs.

I grew up in a heavily Asian county; the worst drivers I see on the roads and the worst drivers among my friends are the Asians, and it’s not close. I’ve often wondered if it’s simply because their parents didn’t grow up in a car culture; my father was essentially teaching me how to drive since I was in kindergarten, and his father did the same for him.

Asians, as immigrants from largely non-motorized societies, don’t really start driving until they get here, so they lack the mental reps that we take for granted and lack the instincts that natives acquire through this process. And because the driver education system (to the extent there is one) relies almost exclusively on the parents, these terrible habits get passed down from the fathers to the sons.

Contrasting the Asians = bad drivers stereotype, my college roommate and his buddies (1st generation Filipinos) were all fine drivers, but they were, almost to a man, car-obsessed from the time they were twelve.

Asians, as immigrants from largely non-motorized societies, don’t really start driving until they get here

I’m not sure I agree. The streets of Bangkok are so filled with traffic that a 30 min drive takes 2 and 1/2 hours. My wife started driving motorcycles when she was 14. However, this was in an atmosphere of complete and utter lawlessness. No one in like 500 miles bothered to get a driver’s license, the police were only interested in getting their bribes…so no enforcement of traffic laws, etc.

This. We were never allowed to drive in Manila or Shanghai. It was assumed that our law-abiding Western nature would get us killed. I probably saw 4 bicyclists get crushed in Shanghai alone over a month long period.

Sure, now it might be. But was that the case 25-35 years ago when this generation’s parents were coming to the US?

FWIW (probably not much), I recall in article in Automobile from about 2005 where the subject was driving in China. The gist of it was that all the drivers essentially drove like teenagers with learner’s permits.

There was a Chinese family who sent their son to the small private school I used to coach at. One day on the way to practice I heard the principal’s daughter complaining that she would have to drive a half hour out of her way to pick the kid up for school every morning. Because his mom failed the driving test so many times that she had to wait six months to retake it.

Two summers ago, I travelled to China to teach middle school children English. While I was unfamiliar with much of their culture, I was most shocked to learn that not a single one of my students had any idea what happened at Tiananmen Square.

Haven’t been to China, China came to me. The wife thinks being a doctor or engineer is practical, standing in front of a tank, not so much.

This is personally why I don’t care for alarm systems. I have insurance for my stuff, and a dog for warning and a gun for defense if there’s a home invasion. I think alarms don’t really do anything, you’re better off investing the money in physical security or insurance.

That depends on the dog. I have seen Shepherds that run and hide when their owners aren’t around, even when on their own territory. In one case, a friend’s house was robbed while their Shepherd ran and hid from the burglars.

Mine is well-socialized, and also very protective of his home and yard. There are only a very few people he knows very well that he will allow to enter if me or my wife isn’t home. I can’t imagine what the hell your friends did to their German Shepherd to make him behave that way, since they are instinctive guardians. Maybe just bad breeding.

Yep. All an alarm is going to do is increase the chances of having the cops show up and shoot the dogs. I really don’t have anything worth stealing anyway, and if some creep breaks into my house, so much the better. We have several dogs, and they’d probably get a good meal or two out of your average-sized criminal. It’d definitely help with the cost of meat for the dogs!

Tom Magee ? 19 minutes ago Her alarm system is responsible for summoning law enforcement. You can’t blame the police for taking action against a hostile animal when the home owners security proxy called them to the scene and that is what they found when they got there.

Tom Magee Arty9Ways ? 16 minutes ago I’ve never had a problem with law enforcement but I have had quite a few problems with hostile animals throughout my life. I wouldn’t think twice about shooting a hostile k9 these days. You do not know who has been training it to do what. Miami didn’t ban pitbulls because they are a genetic aberration. They banned them because idiots turn them into killing machines and allow them to roam the streets.

Some jackass abandoned two Staffordshire terriers at the animal hospital where my girlfriend works. Hard to find good owners because of the media fear campaign mixed with the fact that there are bad apples out there looking for that kind of dog for all the wrong reasons.

“You’re new here?” Dipshit’s been hiding over in 24-7 for a while. He’s a tired lefty twit, tries to hide behind “they’re all bad!”, but it shows. Any criticism of the lying bastard in the WH gets a comment that ‘you aren’t President!’. Figure a mental age of, oh 10.

So the bloody massacre happened nearby. With the “Red bastards” as always being pants-shittingly terrified of looking bad & therefore suppressing any and all information about the event, it is hardly surprising that “the West” doesn’t have all the facts.